Toronto

This is a man’s world … no more. So say the strong, confident women who are leading the way in the GTA’s real estate and development industry.

While the faces in the field may not yet reflect gender parity, women are powering through the testosterone-lined ceiling in growing numbers. In celebration of International Women’s Day, some of those high achievers share their thoughts and experiences.

The number of Toronto-area homes sold last month fell nearly 35 per cent and the average selling price dropped more than 12 per cent from historically high levels set last year, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported Tuesday.

There was a total of 5,175 residential transactions through the board’s MLS system last month, down 34.9 per cent compared to the 7,955 sales in February 2017.

Canada’s latest megadeveloper is making its largest bet in Toronto with a plan for a five-tower, 1.7-million-square-foot, mixed-use community with office space, retail and 800 residential units on the 8.6-acre Newtonbrook Plaza shopping centre site.

China’s Aoyuan Property Group is behind the plan, paying Silvercore Inc. $201-million for the property at 5799 Yonge St. in North York.

Canada

Canadian real estate being bought with illicit cash? No wayyy. A French NGO is alleging that quite a bit of Canadian real estate has been bought with questionable cash. Sherpa, a Paris-based anti-corruption organization, is urging the RCMP to look into 20 high ranking officials from corrupt regimes. All who bought a lot of real estate, with cash from sources that are unclear.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. Officials from foreign countries, with corrupt governments, show up with wads of cash. Amounts of money that don’t make sense in contrast to their salary, all to buy Canadian real estate. Not many questions are asked, because we’re not really looking for answers. It’s not like they’re hairdressers or waiters, where the government feels the “need” to audit income. If you’re from Vancouver, this is your daily news. For the rest of the world, welcome to the s**t show that Canada’s immigration and real estate markets have become.

There’s been plenty of talk about Toronto’s booming real estate market over the past few months. But according to a new report, five other Ontario cities’ housing markets are going to explode in the next few years.

According to the real estate research organization Real Estate Investment Network (REIN), Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Barrie and Brampton all have the potential to become leading housing markets in the next five years.

If you can buy your groceries or a vacation online with your credit card, why not a condo?

A Kitchener developer and a Toronto home development web hub have launched a feature that allows consumers to buy a condo online using a credit card. The purchaser can specify the floorplan, parking and storage locker they want using the BuyNow button on the BuzzBuzzHome website.

USA

This past week Miami developers Louis Birdman, Gregg Covin, Kevin Venger and Regalia Group along with New York-based Plaza Construction announced that the highly anticipated One Thousand Museum luxury condo tower by Zaha Hadid Architects has topped out.

The 62-story tower with 83 half and full-floor residences marks the late Pritzker Prize winner’s first and final residential skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. This milestone is paired with a rendering release of the amenity spaces, revealing new architectural details and further insight into Zaha Hadid’s vision. The project is on track for an early completion in late 2018.

According to ATTOM Data Solutions 2017 Environmental Hazards Housing Risk Index, median home prices in U.S. zip codes in the highest 20 percent for environmental hazard risk appreciated at a faster pace than the overall U.S housing market over the past year, past five years and past 10 years.

International

China said a bill for a property tax is being drafted, moving a step closer to a levy that could help tame runaway home prices.

Officials are working on the measure, Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said in a Wednesday briefing in Beijing during the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress. Former Finance Minister Lou Jiwei told reporters that a draft bill may be reviewed by the legislature this year.

Dan Conn is chief executive officer of Christie’s International Real Estate. For more than 20 years, the wholly owned subsidiary of Christie’s auction house has collaborated with leading real estate brokerages around the globe, but in January Christie’s International Real Estateopened its first-ever gallery space in its New York headquarters dedicated solely to the sale of luxury residential real estate.